Genesis 2: 4b - 9, 15 – 17, 25 – 3: 7; Psalm 51; Romans 5: 12 – 21; Matthew 4: 1 – 11
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker given atTrinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Ever take part in a tug-o-war? I guess just about all of us when we were in school or at summer camp can remember such an episode in our lives.
One summer, I attended a Bible Camp, and a tug-o-war was on the agenda for the afternoon’s activities….So, we campers were divided up into two teams, and we all went down to the shore of the pond to do the tug-o-war.
We had a little time before beginning, and so one team quickly discovered that their part of the shoreline was loose sand….No sooner had they discovered that than they were down on their hands and knees, digging holes in this loose sand about a foot deep. Into these holes, their strongest guys firmly planted their feet.
On the other side – my side – the sand was packed and hard….there would be no digging in this hard stuff with our hands. We all knew who the winning team would be.
No sooner had the whistle blown, the cloth that was tied to the middle of the rope began to move, slowly at first, toward the dug-in side. Tried as we might to gain a foothold against this firmly fixed (and powerful) team, our feet simply slid along the surface of the hard sand as we tried to counter the forces arrayed against us.
Now as I read through the lectionary readings for today, this first Sunday in Lent, that old contest immediately came to mind…
For we are engaged in a tug-o-war, a battle between sin and redemption. And, we are in the position of that piece of cloth….for we are caught between two opposing forces throughout our lives: the forces of good and the forces of evil.
If we’re being realistic about our lives, we have to admit that we are all “fully trained sinners”, capable of doing wrong, even when we know the right we ought to do, but cannot/will not do.
St. Paul puts it this way, in Romans 7: 21b – 24: “When I want to do right, only wrong is within my reach. In my inmost self I delight in the law of God, but I perceive in my outward actions a different law, fighting against the law that my mind approves, and making me a prisoner under the law of sin which controls my conduct. Wretched creature that I am, who is there to rescue me from this state of death?”[1]
The Bible is quite realistic about human nature, and the human capacity to sin.
Moreover, the Holy Scriptures are quite blunt in describing the ways in which sin makes its entry into our lives….
For an analysis of the ways sin makes its lodging in our hearts, we turn now to our Genesis reading for today:
“Did God say?”: The serpent’s first appeal to Eve is a questioning of the limits that God had put on her and on Adam as a condition of their continued presence on the Garden of Eden. The serpent’s effort centers on undermining the clear will of God, sowing seeds of doubt, suggesting, “You will not die.”
An appeal to the acquisition of knowledge and power: Secondly, notice that the serpent appeals to a part of Eve’s makeup that has to do with gaining knowledge and power. We read (verse five), “For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
An appeal to the senses: As Eve falls for the serpent’s line, we see that her physical senses are the avenue by which sin makes its entry into human existence. Verse six reads, “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate….”
Dividing one person from another: Many may be tempted to think that Eve was the responsible party for sin’s taking up residence in human affairs. Not so! Notice that Adam was right next to her throughout the entire interchange with the serpent…. Proceeding on a little further in verse six, we read, “And she also gave some of the fruit to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.” What a chump Adam was! He was entirely silent throughout the conversation and the ensuing violation of God’s explicit command. (A side note is in order here: some biblical scholars think that Adam was more culpable than Eve, since he did not come to his wife’s rescue when she was confronted by the serpent.) Notice that the serpent approached Eve alone, thereby dividing the two human beings from one another in order to make easier prey of the one.
And so, from the pattern of Adam and Eve’s experience, we, their children, seem as doomed as my tug-o-war team was in being able to resist the powerful appeals that the forces of evil make to us each and every day.
But which is the more powerful, firmly grounded and unmovable force, the powers of evil, or the power of God?
The Bible’s answer is: the power of God!
We return to St. Paul’s analysis of the struggle between the two opposing forces, in Romans, chapter seven…. We pick up where left off, at verse 24, “Wretched creature that I am, who is there to rescue me from this state of death?” Paul then adds (verse 25), “Who but God? Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! To sum up then: left to myself I serve God’s law with my mind, but with my unspiritual nature I serve the law of sin.” [2] Paul was bluntly honest about his own helplessness to counter the force of sin in his own life, even when he (like Eve) knew what God’s will was.
But what does our Lord’s own temptation in the wilderness, those 40 days[3] which preceded His public ministry, have to tell us about God’s power to conquer the forces of evil….Looking at Matthew’s account of the temptation, we see the following:
Very similar appeals are made to Jesus, as were made to Eve: The appeals that Jesus receives are quite similar to the ones that Eve succumbed to:
- Using God’s word for nefarious ends: as part of the second appeal (to personal safety), Satan quotes Scripture, saying, “For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.”
- An appeal to the senses: As part of the first temptation, Jesus is tempted with food.
- An appeal to power: With knowledge comes power. That was the bottom line in the serpent’s appeal to Eve, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Likewise, Satan appeals to the human appetite for power and control, offering the kingdoms of this world in exchange for the overthrowing of God’s sovereignty and power.
But we know, either from our past hearings of the temptation account, or by our rehearing of it today, that Jesus wins!
And how does He win? By quoting Holy Scripture…… In each case, Jesus refutes the tempter’s suggestions by a quotation of Scripture.
In closing, what lessons might we draw from Our Lord’s temptation, as He enters our humanity to the full?
We are not alone: Hebrews 4: 15 reads, “For we do not have a high priest (Jesus Christ) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” Satan’s power to divide us from one another, and from God, has been broken for ever. Our Lord Jesus Christ is with us in every temptation, enabling us to conquer the suggestiveness of the forces of evil.[4]
We need to recognize the “modus operandi” of Satan: Appeals to our senses, to a need for safety, or for power and control – all good and necessary aspects of being able to lead a full and satisfying human life – are the avenues of approach that are often used against us as a means of gaining entry (and thereby, control) of our lives.
Sowing the seeds of doubt: The role of Scripture in our faith lives is also a tug-o-war…. For the evil one will try, time and again, to sow seeds of doubt about the truth of God’s word written, the Bible, and about the clarity/trustworthiness of that word. If we allow those suggestions to grow into doubt, and then, disbelief, we become easy prey for the wiles of the evil one. We cannot place ourselves on an even par with Scripture, nor can we place ourselves above it! Scripture’s authority is supreme, standing as God’s word in written form.
So, we are called to beware of the wiles of the evil one….I Peter 5:8 – 9a reads like this, “Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary, the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith….”
Relying on God’s power, His unmovable and steadfast power to conquer the powers of evil, we will soon feel the pull of God’s strength as the forces of evil fail to get a grip on our lives.
Thanks be to God, through whom we have victory over sin through the power of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
AMEN.
[1] Revised English Bible (REB)
[2] REB
[3] Our Lord’s temptation is the model for the Church’s Lenten season, which is 40 days’ long (minus the Sundays in Lent, which are always celebrations of Our Lord’s resurrection).
[4] See I Corinthians 10:13, which reads, “No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the testing, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.”
